Yesterday a group of Project Declan riders took on another training ride in preparation for the Mt Cootha challenge. Megan Wallace recaps the day - have a read to see what they got up to! Itll take 6-7hrs Tony said. Therell be a couple of lumps in the road Tony said. 9hrs and 45mins, close to 3800m of climbing in 120km later, Tony was right on the money. What a trustworthy guy. They day started off at approx 5:20am from the UQ pool. It was a Glorious morning. So much so that several of us found out that going over the back side of a mountain named as such was on the cards - just a couple of lumps... So the plan was formulated to head to Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious. And then to proceed over the back of Mt Glorious towards Fernvale and turn around. A day not for the faint hearted. The team of Marty, Tony, Joce, Jason, Nic, Dale and Megan set out with spirits high. Emma was our wonderful support vehicle who we were all sure was counting her blessings she had purchased an automatic car to sit behind cyclists punching up climbs at 7km/hr. The most direct and flat route was then taken to get to Waterworks Road. Some of us thought a sneaky Cootha Back was on the cards based on the proximity to such climb and were disappointed this was not the case (cough). The climbing and chatter began as we made our way to Mt Nebo, dodging motorbikes and scrub turkeys. The coffee at the top of Mt Nebo was calling out Joce, Nic and Emmas name as this was their turn around point. Such an achievement to get so far with some sneaky pinch climbs along the way. Solid riding by all meant we generally stayed together as a group with some having more momentum and little fear of hammering down small descents. The five remaining cyclists soldiered on to Mt Glorious and instead of veering right to go what is known as the normal way to descend Mt Nebo, a little smooth track was taken to the left. In what felt like no time at all, Mt Glorious and its namesake coffee shop awaited our order. Dale and Megan were ready to set up camp and re-caffeinate the bloodstream and tuck into a muffin, however this was not to be the case. It appeared that getting to the top of Glorious was not an achievement enough in itself for Tony as he informed us that we would instead be stopping there on our way back after going over the back side of Glorious - some estimated this would take about one and a quarter hours. We then proceeded to descend down the back of Glorious with our forearms hurting more than our quads as we navigated our way around some tight hairpin turns, breaking hard, hoping for tyres not to blow out. We eventually turned around and proceeded to make our way back up what is one of the most notoriously challenging climbs in Brisbane. A few lumps as Tony had pointed out earlier. We eventually re-grouped at the Lookout. This did not occur without incident as some of the riders had to stop and take in the beautiful scenery while getting their breath back and regaining the ability to rotate their legs around in circles again. Two riders proceeded to have a tumble due to overbalancing due to missed clipping in secondary to steepness, luckily at times when motorbikes werent coming around the corner at a sensible pace. Marty hit the dreaded bonk and was saved by a small jube of Dales 95% organic Clif Shots. In what appeared to be no longer than 1.25hrs, we were all back at Mt Glorious coffee shop where the black doctor (coke) was consumed by the bucket load, along with cake, dairy goodness and water. Knowing the worst of the climbing was behind us, we were back in Brisbane in no time, using every ounce of what was left to make it back to UQ - yet again, in the most direct, flat way possible as navigated by Tony. We arrived back safe and sound and a little worse for wear at approx 2:45pm. The word beer may be have been mentioned just once. The camaraderie and support shown by everyone, particularly for those who found some of the lumps more tiresome than others was phenomenal. The Project Declan Spirit was on show throughout the entire day and brought some of us close to tears. It is days such as these that you find something deeper within yourself apart from just going for a coffee ride - which today was clearly not! It is privilege to ride with such amazing and inspirational people who are working towards such a fantastic cause in the form of Project Declan. Thanks Megan for recapping a great day. We will keep you posted on this weeks training adventures.
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 06:58:34 +0000
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